


i love you in this way

by rabidgopher



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Ballet Dancer Katsuki Yuuri, Dance Instructor AU, Dancer AU, M/M, Pole dancer Yuuri, VictUuri, Victuuri Week, Victuuri Week 2017, dance instructor Yuuri, victor has a nickname kink
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:26:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9654782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rabidgopher/pseuds/rabidgopher
Summary: “Vitya?” The younger Japanese man looks confused.“A nickname,” Victor rushes to explain. “Like Vitenka, or… Yuurichka.”“Yuurichka.”Victor nods eagerly, not quite trusting his voice.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Aged Victor and Yuuri down a couple of years (26 and 22 respectively, once their story picks up). Everyone else is the same. Beginning takes place during the 2015 winter season; progresses into spring 2016.
> 
> Please enjoy my first Yuri on Ice fic!

When Victor is 25, his father and mother divorce. 

 

Yuri tells him he's being disgusting and overdramatic. “Yakov and Lilia aren't your parents, moron!”

 

Nevertheless, the skaters under Yakov’s tutelage have been his family for longer than he cares to think about.

 

The Grand Prix Finals are coming up short and fast, and though Victor may be a master of pushing his true feelings out of his skating, he has an inkling that this may be his last time taking home the gold.

 

The thought doesn't make him depressed or angry; only drained.

 

Yuri had been practicing with Lilia and Yakov both nearly every day, forcing himself almost past the brink of his young body's capabilities. Next year, he'll be in a higher bracket without the same support and training methods. 

 

He's painfully aware of Yuri’s impending promotion; knows that someday sooner rather than later, he'll be surpassed by the new generation of skaters like his young rinkmate. He's not ancient by any means, only encroaching on old by figure skating standards, but he'll be twenty-six in time for the World Championships. Well over fifteen years dedicated to a career that, for every athlete on the ice, inevitably and slowly dies.

 

And Victor is exhausted.

 

He's tired of empty praise, the kind that comes from the lack of real competition leading to easy wins. He's tired of a deadline looming over his head, of a decision the entire world expects him to make - judge? announcer? coach? - that he wants no part of. He’s tired of the legacy and discs of precious metal that threaten to tie him to the rink for the rest of his life. Most of all, he's tired of sacrificing his heart and soul to please the ice, when he can remember so long ago how different it used to be. 

 

Makkachin sighs noisily in his lap where his fingers have stilled. He smiles. She's always been impatient with how her human doesn't seem to have caught on after all these years.

 

And his smile fades again.

 

Especially lately, it feels like Makkachin gets even less of his attention than he deigns to give even himself. Besides maybe some unsupervised food choices, she's never displayed any genetic predispositions for illness - but she's not a puppy anymore. At thirteen, he has no idea how much longer he has with his beloved friend.

 

He honestly has no idea why Yakov had decided to announce the impending divorce  _ now _ , of all times; whether or not the other skaters will admit it, they’re all shaken and saddened by the news. Even Mila’s been much more subdued than usual, and Georgi has been  _ inconsolable _ .

 

It's less than ideal timing, half a month before Grand Prix qualifiers.

 

Victor can't say it's particularly affected his own skating, but he's seen it in the others. Mila’s listless, preferring to spend her days skating mindlessly without really practicing. Georgi, for all his dramatics, really does seem shaken. Victor found him genuinely crying alone in the locker room not too long ago.

 

And then there's Yuri. He's too young for this, though Victor wouldn't dare say that to his face. Just… he sees too much of himself in the teenager. Things he wouldn't wish to see in anyone, really. Yuri’s methods are different than Victor's at that age, anger instead of serene aloofness, but he already tries to push away anyone who comes close. And yet, Victor knows from personal experience that Yuri doesn't  _ want _ to. Victor hates that he doesn't know the right thing to say when it matters; besides, he has never been very good with kids.

 

However he looks at it, he doesn't understand his coach’s intentions. That's unsettling in itself; Yakov have always been the most frustratingly predictable part of Victor's life. When he finally decides to confront the older man about it, Yakov sighs in a huff.

 

“It wasn’t a test, if that’s what you were thinking.”

 

It  _ had _ crossed Victor’s mind. A “if you can skate through emotional turmoil, you can skate through anything!”-type situation. But that’s not really even the kind of thinking  _ he’d _ consider, much less Yakov.

 

Another thing, Victor realizes for the umpteenth time in his life, is that he’s selfish. Because why would Yakov, or  _ anyone _ , need to draw out their unhappiness for the convenience of a business relationship?

 

It’s still unfair and he hates it.

 

“I know,” he says instead.

  
  


*~*~*~*

  
  


Victor sweeps the competition.

 

Dully, he acknowledges that there was never a doubt in his mind. His free program was untouchable, in the Grand Prix, Nationals, Europeans, and at Worlds. The awards dragged, the banquets dragged, the travel positively crawled, and the last dregs of winter slunk away to submit to another chilly Russian spring. 

 

It's become perfunctory for him, the routine - he takes the rest of April off (though it's far from a vacation), then starts choreography and publicity all over again in early May. This year, he's tempted to just let Yakov pick his music. He doubts his coach would mind; the man’s been grousing at his lackluster attitude for the past 18 months.

 

Victor would chalk it up to seasonal depression if not for its duration.

 

It doesn't help that now, after the excitement and stress of competition has worn off, there's the matter of Yakov and Lilia’s split. He'd seen little of the former prima since November, since the two filed their papers in court. 

 

He may be thinking of Lilia, but dancing is the last thing on Victor’s mind when Yakov announces that the skaters need a new off-season ballet instructor.

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know when Yakov and Lilia divorced; if it's been established, then this is non-canon compliant. 
> 
> If I've made any hugely glaring errors, feel free to tell me!


End file.
